


Dissolution

by Im_The_Doctor (Bofur1)



Category: Video Blogging RPF, Youtube RPF
Genre: Action, Aftermath of Violence, Amnesia, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Begging, Betrayal, Brotherly Angst, Chases, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Dark Magic, Dreams and Nightmares, Explosions, Fear, Head Injury, Hide and Seek, Hospitalization, Hypnotism, Injury Recovery, Intense, Loyalty, Magic, Major Character Injury, Making Up, Mid-Canon, Platonic Cuddling, Realization, Tenderness, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-26 20:17:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17752781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bofur1/pseuds/Im_The_Doctor
Summary: Affected by a presence somewhere beyond his senses, Marvin dreams up a grisly nightmare. Chase, however, is the one lives through it.





	1. Chapter 1

Run. Hide. Run. Hide. Run. Run. Run.

Feet thundering against the carpet, lungs stabbed with a pain that made him feel like they were being stripped away as he cut the next corner too quickly and slammed in the opposite wall of the hallway with a weighty thud. Shock shot through Chase’s shoulder and back and sweat blurred his vision as he cast a panicked glance behind him. He was still coming.

“Marvin, please, stop!” he keened, a fresh dose of fear churning through him as he distinguished the sparks priming in Marvin’s palms, more than capable of burning him alive. “ _Stop!_  You don’t know what you’re doing!” His next plea was shattered by a sharp yelp as he ducked the fiery blast, plaster raining down from the gaping hole over his head. “ _Marvin!_ ”

“Keep on running, little boy,” the magician singsonged, tilting his head with a wide, greenlit smile. “Try to make this interesting for me…” When Chase made no move, his smile transformed into a vicious snarl and he reared back, summoning a near-blinding plume of power and bellowing. “ _RUN!_ ”

Run.

Gasping for one last lungful of fuel, Chase bolted down the next hall, crying out as the next near-miss singed his back and blew his hat off his head. His hair was thrown into his eyes, plastered to his forehead by the sweat pouring down and he stumbled again, ankles twisting violently out of his boots as he hit the ground hard. The carpet scuffed his elbows and forearms as he scrambled backwards, choking on nothing. He couldn’t breathe—!

A flurry of light exploded toward him. All he could do was lift his arms to shield his face and lose the rest of his air in his scream of agony as the smell of searing flesh engulfed him. In one thrash he hurled himself onto his side, beating his arms against the carpet so hard that they would crack. Blood and blistering were all he could see of them and he sobbed unintelligibly, clawing at the smoking carpet in a desperate attempt to crawl.

“Marvin! This isn’t you!” he wailed, tears coursing down his face as the older Ego came to a stop. “Marvin,  _help me!_ ”

“Help?” Marvin hissed, leering gleefully down at him. “Well, why ever did you wait so long to ask?!” Seizing a fistful each of Chase’s shirt and his hair, he hauled him to his feet in one excruciating heave, ignoring his whines until he was upright. “You’ve always been impervious to my  _help_ , haven’t you?” he continued through clenched teeth, shifting his fingers to dig into Chase’s temples. “But I think with my newfound power, I might  _finally_  be able to break through to you!”

Chase’s knees were trying to buckle underneath him, forcing him to cling to Marvin’s shoulders to stand, but as the magic started taking its affect his hands began missing their mark. He shuddered and panted, blinking against the sensation of the tingly buzz racing through his skin. As he looked up, he flinched, alarmed by the vivid intensity of the new glow in Marvin’s gaze. It was too bright, achingly so, but Marvin’s hands were tight on his skin and the tingle was seeping further into him, pulling at the backs of his wide, bewildered eyes. He couldn’t…he couldn’t close them. He couldn’t look away.

“How are you feeling now?” the older Ego questioned, his smile twitching with smug triumph. “Any better than you were?”

Chase barely registered the question, transfixed by the light spiraling endlessly through the dark rings in Marvin’s irises. “Better…” he mumbled in awe, distant even to his own ears. “Better…”

“I knew you would. I want you to relax for me, Chase. Let yourself completely relax…You’re going to start feeling very drowsy in a moment or two. You won’t be able to resist falling asleep…You  _shouldn’t_  resist. Don’t worry, now. I’m not going to let you fall.”

The buzz in his mind was wiping out whatever let him register fully sentences. Marvin’s words were all stringing together, but his voice was so soft as it rumbled through him, lulling him down. Sleep…Sleep sounded like heaven. He shouldn’t resist…His legs stopped their struggle to stand and his hands fell away from where they had clutched at Marvin’s shoulders, sliding limply to his sides.

Something solid and metallic there brushed the skin of his wrist, and he blinked. Holster _. Gun_.

The glaze cleared within the span of a millisecond, the buzz blown away by the realization that Marvin’s hand was pressing painfully into his scars. It  _hurt_ , he was  _hurting_  him! He was meant to be immune to this!

“N-No!” he gasped, wrenching back and staggering as he swung his arms out for balance. “No, y-you can’t—Get away from me!”

Marvin’s screech of rage was the only warning Chase got before a flaming fist swung at his jaw, nearly taking him back to the floor. The moment he dodged back, adrenaline cleared the rest of his mind and running became his only purpose. Corners and doorways were all he registered among the breathless blur, suffocated by his burning lungs and fear-blind eyes. There was no time to beg now and no reason to; Marvin’s magic hailed and railed in his wake, shattering walls and doors and like an apocalyptic storm. All Chase had were the primal instincts of the prey and by some sheer miracle, they kept him a few yards ahead of his predator.

At long last, with a burst of reckless abandon, he was able to put a hallway between them. How many precious seconds did he waste glancing wildly around before he saw the corner office? It was fully furnished but never used, unlocked, a hiding place—He lunged for it, heaving the door open and closed in one frantic motion.

It was only after he’d turned on the light and taken a single breath that he realized he was cornered.

What followed was an explosion that overturned the office in one roaring heave. The shockwave slammed into Chase’s chest like an anvil, hurling him off his feet toward the back of the room. His head connected with solid oak at breakneck speed; he saw a burst of white-hot stars in the darkness and then nothing more.

Seething, the magician stood in the doorway, hands lifted to send another charge if need be, but his victim hit the ground hard.

Several seconds passed and Chase still didn’t move. There was a glistening smear of blood on the edge of the heavy desk now.

“Had you given me your cooperation, Brody, it wouldn’t have come to this,” Marvin spat, letting the remainder of his magic gradually diffuse as he retracted his steps, pulling the door mostly closed behind him. Breathing deeply, he turned dim, narrowed eyes to the destruction marring the halls. He could magic most of the evidence away on his walk back to the doors.

 _It wouldn’t have come to this_.

* * *

“Hh—!”

With a startled grunt, Marvin threw himself upright in his chair, clumsy hands outstretched to steady himself. He knocked a few of his various desk trinkets down in the process, but it was that clatter and rattling that informed him where he was. For a disoriented moment he could do nothing but watch as they rolled to a stop, belatedly realizing that he should pick them up.

As he righted them, it was practically all he could do not to knock over others in his waking stupor. It was strange for him to be so groggy in the middle of the day, he mused, digging the heels of his palms into his eyes and reaching for his nearby coffee cup. The dirty bean water was lukewarm; he could barely get it down his unusually tight throat and when he did, he regretted it. Why did he have this unsettled twist in his stomach?

Maybe it had to do with falling asleep in his office instead of his bedroom. He rarely ever dozed off at his desk—certainly not after a good night’s sleep, and last night he hadn’t been tossing or turning at all. If anything, he’d passed out as soon as his head hit the pillow. His dreams had been—

The coffee cup slipped from his hand, ricocheting off the edge of the desk to land and splatter its contents onto the carpet below. Marvin didn’t hear the impact, frozen in the memories that were pouring back into him and sending chills of shock to his core. His  _dreams_ —adrenaline and malicious glee, uncontrolled power, tearing doors off their hinges as if they were weightless, and terror welling in heather blue eyes.

Latching onto his mask and lunging unstably to his feet, Marvin near-sprinted out of his office into the hallway, glancing back and forth for any sign of the others. Jackieboy was a sight for sore eyes, feet propped up on the coffee table and his nose buried in a comic.

“Jackieboy!” the magician called sharply as he approached, cape flaring wildly behind him as if it could sense the panic he was trying to suppress. “Where’s Chase?”

“He’s filming, as far as I know!” Jackie answered, sitting up with furrowed brows as he took in Marvin’s expression. “Why? What’s wrong?”

“I had this—”

Whatever was going to come out of his mouth was going to sound ridiculously paranoid, he realized abruptly, snapping it shut with a clack and taking a terse breath. He wanted to check and make sure, of course, but once it proved that Chase was perfectly fine, Jackieboy would probably make fun of him for worrying. He wasn’t in any mood for that.

“Marv?” the older Ego prompted expectantly.

“It’s nothing, really,” Marvin amended, shrugging restively. “I just feel like I need to check up on him. It’s been too long since I visited him at work, y’know?” Without waiting for Jackieboy to respond, he spun toward the front door. “I’ll be back soon. I’m going to see how he’s doing.”

“Okay…well, say hi to him for me!”

“Yeah, sure, fine.”

The cab drive to the Bro Average studio was spent with Marvin agitatedly bouncing his legs and drumming his fingers against his jeans. The money he was spending on this would be a waste, he knew. If he’d thought of it, he could have just called Chase from home, but he had a sneaking suspicion that he wouldn’t have been satisfied. He needed to see him in person, make sure he was safe and intact.

As he stared with narrowed eyes at the passing scenery, Marvin didn’t actually see any of it. His dream had been horrifyingly vivid; when he thought back, he could practically feel the pressure of Chase’s hands gripping his wrists, trying to deflect his magic. He could remember his ears ringing, near-drowning out the panicked pleas for him to stop and spare him…

“He’s fine,” he murmured to himself, leaning his head against the cab window and fidgeting to suppress a worried shudder. “He’s going to be fine.”

The outside of the building seemed normal enough, he decided as the cab came to a stop and he made his way out, though that didn’t offer any sense of relief. A lot of damage had been hidden behind these walls in the past. Chase had  _broken_  here. This was where Marvin had found him after…

After.

As he cautiously strode across the lot toward the front doors, he could see, much to his disconcertion, that the lights in the front hallway weren’t on. That was always the first thing the crew made sure of. How could they have overlooked that? In fact, none of the lights were on. Sunlight shining through the glass doors served as the only way to see, but it was enough.

The hallways weren’t in ruins as they were in his dream—a comforting difference, but it didn’t escape his notice that the carpet was littered with dust and bits of plaster and the walls had long, spidery cracks running through them. He hadn’t been here in some time but if anything had happened to cause damage during a shoot, Chase would have complained about it at some point. He would have made plans to repair them, ask if they could hire a painter.

 _He would have just asked me to come and paint with him_.

Marvin’s heartrate skyrocketed, trying to outpace his quickening footsteps as he hurried forward into the farther reaches of the building.

If Jackieboy was right and this was a filming day, where was the crew? It looked as if it’d been completely deserted!

“Chase?” Marvin hollered, disconcerted by how easily his voice was swallowed up in the quiet. There was no echo. “Chase! Are you here?”

Halloween was approaching. Maybe this was an elaborate attempt to lure any curious, unsuspecting passersby into a jumpscare. “Listen, if you try to startle me, you and I are going to transport to the nearest trashcan so I can dump you in it headfirst! You know I will.”

He wouldn’t. The threat was weak, as was the humor, but it was all he could muster as he tried the handles of various office doors and found most of them locked. He called out a hushed “Chase?” into each one that opened, but no trap or prank was sprung. They were suspended in dark silence.

The farther he went, the more he hoped that he  _wouldn’t_  get an answer; if the hush held, it meant that the younger Ego wouldn’t be here. He would be far away from this place, filming in a separate location, visiting his kids or showing Jameson the town while he was on his lunch break. He couldn’t have suffered what he had in Marvin’s dream. Marvin couldn’t have done those things.

Not to him. Never him. Never—

Despite himself, he stopped up short, his mouth going entirely dry when he saw the office door at the right end of the hall cracked open ever so slightly. He already recognized it. He already remembered  _opening_  it himself. Within, he could hear a light hissing and flickering, disturbingly loud in the silence. It sounded as if it had been damaged…by a stray blast of magic, perhaps…

 _It was just a dream. It had to be a dream, it_ had _to be_ , Marvin reminded himself as he gingerly pressed a sweaty palm against the door to nudge it open just a few feet farther.

In one motion, the nightmare was made real. Broken glass, upturned furniture and streaks of blood left by a frantic struggle that had met its end with the limp, tangled form lying motionless underneath the computer desk.

_No—no, no, no, no—!_

The overturned chairs crashed and skidded as he tore past them, stumbling over his own feet and landing with a shock of pain to his knees at the fallen vlogger’s side.

“Chase?!” he gasped tremulously, brushing hurried fingers over his neck and wrists, alarmed by the burns he found there. “Wake up, Chase…C-Can you hear me? Wake up. Wake up!” Shifting higher, he pressed one hand to the crown of Chase’s head, steadying him as he leaned in and strained his ears. A faint wheeze of air brushed through Marvin’s long hair.

He was alive.  _He was alive_ , but as Marvin withdrew his hand from Chase’s hair, the blood painting his fingertips sent that small relief crashing down.

“Oh, no—no—” The deep, ugly gash he found hidden under green locks drew a hoarse cry of shock and dismay from him and he helplessly reeled back, pressing his hands against his mouth and mewling brokenly.

_I did this to him! I did this! It’s my fault! I—I—!_

Chase was alive! Marvin should be moving, checking him for more injuries, calling for help, but the dream—the vivid memories of how brutally he’d lashed out and the heartbreak and panic in Chase’s eyes paralyzed him. The head wound was too deep, the puddle of blood on the floor beside him too large and too familiar, too reminiscent of how it had been when he’d—And Marvin had been the one to  _put_  him here. He gagged suddenly, convulsively, rocking back and forth as scalding tears distorted the scene around him. It didn’t matter; it would be burned into his mind for the rest of his life.

“Wh—What’ve I done?” he choked out, strangled by the lump in his throat. “What’ve I done?! Chase—I d-didn’t mean to—no, no, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!”

One hand left his mouth, smearing blood across his cheek and chin as it dragged away and returned to the younger Ego’s skull, pressing hard against the wet, sticky heat in his hair.

“I’m  _sorry!_ ” The sobs were out of his control, torn out of him by the combined forces of anguish and hatred aimed at no one but himself. “Chase, please! Please, wake up…Please,  _please_  wake up…”


	2. Chapter 2

Chase woke up.

It was a gradual, painful transition from the deep darkness holding him down, but when his thoughts started surfacing from the still black pool within him, his eyes began to flutter, searching for any trace of light. When he found the strength to blink, he was blinded by it, flinching as much as he was able and hurriedly reclosing them. He could still see it through his eyelids, though. It seemed to be a constant, unwavering, and it was coming no closer. Swallowing through a dry, tight mouth, he gingerly risked it, peeking out at the world.

Fluorescent lights in a white ceiling…This wasn’t the studio. Now that his other senses were starting to stir, his nose was stinging with the clinical smell of cleanser and disinfectant and every steady blip of the heart monitor thumped simultaneously in his ears. He was in the lab. He was home.

As his eyes opened farther, they panned dazedly around the farther reaches of the room, searching for Schneep. He wasn’t anywhere in sight and the door to what he called his “cot closet”, a small offset room holding nothing but his cot, was closed. He must be sleeping, but Chase knew that if he made any noise the doctor would wake from his naturally light doze and hurry out to see what was wrong.

The longer Chase stared off into the distance, the harder his head began hammering, he realized with a grimace, hissing through his teeth. There was a dull pressure against his skull, malleable but tight: bandages. He was more familiar with that sensation than he cared to admit. Heaving a nauseated breath, he steered his eyes sideways, away from the overbearing lights, and then froze, heart monitor skipping with a burst of startled anxiety.

Marvin was in the chair by his bedside, but it looked all wrong. His impeccable posture had been abandoned; he was slumped uncomfortably low, at risk of sliding too far and tumbling to the floor, and his breathing was slow, deep and heavy. He was asleep, he realized belatedly, allowing himself a shaky sigh as he impulsively shifted a few inches away. He didn’t take his eyes off him as he moved; he knew he couldn’t afford to.

It was…rare to see him with his guard down like this. The more closely Chase looked, however, the more he began to notice how haggard the older Ego was. Hair matted and tangled, unmasked face a pale contrast to the bruise-like rings under his eyes and rumpled clothing that looked like it was three days old…This didn’t look like the man who had  _hunted_  him.

It was just…Marvin. How long had he been sitting here by Chase’s bedside, agonizing over him until he couldn’t stand to be conscious anymore? The thought of it made the vlogger’s heart ache, but there was still fear lingering in that pain. It had been Marvin’s face twisted in that ugly grin, Marvin’s voice and his eyes and his magic trying to destroy him.

Dare he risk it? Was this Marvin, his predator, or Marvin, his best friend?

Again Chase swallowed hard, licking his lips nervously to find traction for his voice. “Marv…” It cracked on the syllable from lack of use and he flushed, closing his eyes briefly. “Marv…”

Twitching faintly and mumbling something unintelligible, the magician stirred. As soon as he slid a few more inches out of the chair, he lurched and snatched at the armrests, stretching his legs out to recover his balance. “I’m awake,” he managed, glancing around in confusion to see who had spoken.

“Hi,” Chase whispered.

Any color left in Marvin’s face drained away as his wide eyes locked onto Chase’s for the first time in three days. “Chase,” he rasped hoarsely. “You’re—you’re gonna be okay. I found you—” Without warning he reeled back farther in his chair, shaking his head in dismay as his bloodshot, glassy eyes dimmed. “I s-shouldn’t be near you. I only came because Schneep’s sleeping and you…I didn’t want you to be alone while you were… I’m not supposed to be here. I’m sorry. I’m sorry!”

“Wait—” Chase protested in a croak as the older Ego scrambled to his feet, nearly knocking his chair over entirely in his haste. “Marv! Wait!”

Marvin’s beeline for the door across the way ended as quickly as it began, Chase’s call tugging him to a stop. He didn’t turn, however, hunching into himself and clenching his shaking hands at his sides.

“W-Why’re you leaving?” Chase’s voice held real, earnest confusion—even concern; it only turned Marvin’s stomach in knots. “You don’t have to go…”

 _I can’t be near him. I can’t, I_ can’t _. What if I hurt him again?_

“Yeah,” he breathed thickly. “Yeah, I do. You s-should be afraid of me, Chase.  _Petrified_. Everything I did to you…” A faint whimper very nearly escaped as he ducked his head, half-tilted as if he was going to look back. The fresh tear-streaks forming were hidden by the curtain of his hair.

“But it…” Chase faltered, gaze falling to the blankets draped over his knees for a moment as his brows furrowed. Straining this way brought waves of pain to his skull and made his eyes ache, but he persisted. “I don’t…think it was you. Not really.”

Marvin’s breath audibly shuddered and his head and shoulders slumped, back tightening in tandem. “I don’t know what happened to me!” he whispered, his mind drifting back to the ringing that had drowned out any care for his brother. “I don’t want it to happen again. I could’ve—!” The words stuck in his throat.

This wasn’t the man he’d run from; Chase knew that for certain now. With a pained grunt, he lifted his heavy head from its pillow and squirmed minutely to straighten, entreating softly, “Come back, bro. Please?”

As if mechanically, Marvin’s leg shifted to pivot back, but his upper body didn’t move with it. “Chase. I just want you safe.”

Chase’s heart sank at the despair in those words. His own voice came out much smaller than he intended as he pointed out humbly, “I’m safer with you than I am alone…We both know that.”

History hung behind those words, and Marvin remembered. He remembered much more than what he had seen three days ago.

 _Heaving him out of the corner booth in the pub, supporting him around the back and encouraging him to lean however much he needed as he stumbled and slurred. Holding him as he cried so hard he nearly gave himself whiplash. Talking him down through the dread and anxiety that told him he was about to die. Finding him in that other pool of blood, the one that almost snatched him away. Prying the gun out of his hands whenever he was tempted to try again_.

He could never turn his back on him, Marvin realized as he glanced tremulously over his shoulder and saw Chase’s hand outstretched. It broke him. Before he could even register that he was moving, he was again at the side of the bed, Chase’s bandaged arms wrapped tight around his neck as he half-lifted him from the bed in a fierce hug.

“I never meant to hurt you,” he pleaded raggedly, his voice muffled as he buried his face in Chase’s hair. “I never—I didn’t know what I was doing!”

“I know. I know, it wasn’t you. We’ll figure it out,” Chase murmured, more focused on leaning into him than on offering reassurances. Yes, Marvin was trembling, but he was still warm and solid around him and that was exactly how Chase wanted him. That was the friend he knew.

Marvin let him be as close as he wanted, clenching his eyes tightly against the remaining tears. As he did so, he became more and more aware of the creeping sensation up his back and the strained, warped sounds echoing from beyond the room—whispers through glass, water, yet right against his ears.

When he lifted his head and began drawing back from Chase, they were gone. The vlogger blinked up at him, looking decidedly sleepier than before. Chuckling weakly, Marvin released him entirely.

“You’re tired,” he stated the obvious, gesturing for him to lie back down. “You should get some sleep before Schneep comes out to check on you.”

“Mm-hmm…Don’t go, Marv, okay?” he mumbled as he slumped back into the pillow, his eyes already drooping. “Don’t go just cos I’m…” The rest of his sentence trailed off into the soft, snuffly breaths Marvin immediately recognized from the precious moments when Chase felt comfortable enough to fall asleep against him on the couch.

He genuinely trusted, believed he was safe with him, despite…everything. Taking a hurried breath, Marvin nodded, wiping the back of his hands over his wet cheeks and then looking back for his chair. It didn’t seem particularly appealing anymore.

With the most careful of maneuvers and only a creak or two from the bedsprings, the magician settled down beside him with an arm pillowing his head. The other hand slid lower, finding Chase’s by instinct and squeezing faintly.

At any moment, whatever it was that had taken his mind could strike again. It was a terrifying thought.

 _I shouldn’t be near him_.

Even so, he didn’t move.


End file.
